HELP!!!!! My cat gorges her food down and tries to eat my other cats food as well!!!

chani · Oct 25, 2013

HI!

I'm new to this site and am seeking help! I have two female cats, Tequila and Sookie. Tequila is about 2 1//2 years old and Sookie just turned 1 in June. All of this has happened after I had Sookie spayed in

Sep. Before that, they both kept to their own bowls and seemed to eat normally. When I went to the vet he had given me a cup for the amount of food that I should be feeding them and I have been ever since.

I feed them dry food and only in the morning before I leave for work and my roommate feeds them in the evening. My cat Sookie has been pretty skittish since I first got her and seems to be afraid of everything

but has slowly come around. About a week after Sookie had been spayed is when the problem started to occur. When I feed the two cats (they both eat in a dish that has two bowls and both eat from the same

one every time), Sookie gorges her food down like she's never been fed! Even when she doesn't finish her food she goes after my other cat (Tequila's) food when she's still eating from the bowl. Tequila has

always had a normal eating habit and still does. Also it seems like Sookie is a totally different cat now, she's been tearing into any kind of bag that has food in it when we're not home or when we're asleep! I've

tired to separate their bowls when I feed them but she still runs to find Tequila's bowl of food when she still has food in her own. I'm not here in the evening on the weekdays to watch their feeding. I don't want

to have to bother my roommate to have to sit there and watch my cats eat. I'm not sure why this is happening? I've always had cats growing up and never had this problem before so I need any advice that

would help!

jcat · Oct 25, 2013

Welcome to TCS! The behavior most probably has more to do with Sookie now being more or less an adult than with her recent spay. As an adult, she can compete for resources, i.e., food, on an equal playing field.

Instead of simply separating their food dishes, you could try separating the cats during meal times. Shutting one of them in a bedroom or bathroom till they're both finished their food would prevent one from getting too much. Bags of food should be kept in airtight (and cat-proof) storage containers to maintain freshness and prevent stibitzing, like Tupperware.

You're probably going to get quite a few responses urging you to switch the cats to more appropriate (healthy) wet food, too. There are any number of threads and articles here outlining why dry food isn't the best choice for cats.

tammyp · Oct 25, 2013

Lol, yeah JCat, - Chani, I'll be the first one then to talk about food.

Keeping it simple, if a cat (or anyone) is eating stuff that their body cannot use, then that body is going to scream that it is hungry. We often see the 'hungry-fat-cat' syndrome with cats fed kibble, because their bodies are saying they arent getting what they need to live (true)...so they're always hungry...but what is going into the body is being broken down to sugar and stored as fat, because this is what the cat's physiology does with carbs.

The moral of the story is, cats must eat meat. If you look at the ingredients on kibble, you'll see a heck of a lot of 'gluten' 'protein isolate' 'maize' 'soy' etc... These are all grains. You'll perhaps see a bit of meat MEAL. Again, this isn't really a good source of meat, so there's not as much nutritional value as meat. (There's also a lot of evidence to link disease and the feeding of kibble, but I was really aiming this info at your current 'hungry' problem).

Can you feed some canned food? Preferably one without grains. Any canned food will be better than kibble in any case, and help satisfy the hungries better because it will contain far more meat. Here's a link to a vet many of us quote, and what she writes about diet. I believe there is also a page where she lists ok canned foods available in America: http://www.catinfo.org/

chani · Oct 25, 2013

The only thing about wet cat food is that Sookie doesn't like to touch the stuff. My other cat Tequila loves it. I just went out and bought a couple of different types to try out on Sookie and see if there is anything that she will eat. I just tried out tuna and she took one sniff of the stuff and walked away.

tammyp · Oct 25, 2013

Cats are creatures of habit, so it does take a little while for the more cautious ones to take to any type of new food. I keep presenting the new thing, sometimes with the old thing next to it, or both handfed (I know, wet food handfed!), and sometimes mixed. It does slowly happen...I'm sure there are articles on this site that would help you transition...

mewlittle · Oct 26, 2013

Chani said:
HI!

I'm new to this site and am seeking help! I have two female cats, Tequila and Sookie. Tequila is about 2 1//2 years old and Sookie just turned 1 in June. All of this has happened after I had Sookie spayed in

Sep. Before that, they both kept to their own bowls and seemed to eat normally. When I went to the vet he had given me a cup for the amount of food that I should be feeding them and I have been ever since.

I feed them dry food and only in the morning before I leave for work and my roommate feeds them in the evening. My cat Sookie has been pretty skittish since I first got her and seems to be afraid of everything

but has slowly come around. About a week after Sookie had been spayed is when the problem started to occur. When I feed the two cats (they both eat in a dish that has two bowls and both eat from the same

one every time), Sookie gorges her food down like she's never been fed! Even when she doesn't finish her food she goes after my other cat (Tequila's) food when she's still eating from the bowl. Tequila has

always had a normal eating habit and still does. Also it seems like Sookie is a totally different cat now, she's been tearing into any kind of bag that has food in it when we're not home or when we're asleep! I've

tired to separate their bowls when I feed them but she still runs to find Tequila's bowl of food when she still has food in her own. I'm not here in the evening on the weekdays to watch their feeding. I don't want

to have to bother my roommate to have to sit there and watch my cats eat. I'm not sure why this is happening? I've always had cats growing up and never had this problem before so I need any advice that

would help!

it sounds like it started when you listened to your vet on how much to feed maybe up her food or switch brands maybe she ain't getting enough vitamins in her is she eating dry and wet or just dry? maybe add some wet into there diet and get a storage container for the pets dry food since she is tearing into the food bags and get one for your human bag food and box food as well because she might start getting into that too my cats have even with the cupert door shut i wake up with a pasta rice cereal mess on the floor and there food bowl is full -_-

what brand of dry are you feeding? go for a no grain if you aint already feeding it

get her dewormed if she hasn't in the last 6mos

catpack · Oct 26, 2013

I will second the thought that Sookie is not getting the amount of protein/fat that she needs. I will increase her portion of food and/or look into another dry food that has a higher protein and fat content than she is eating now. Also, the kibble should ideally be grain-free (or with as few additives as possible.)

I had a similar problem with one of my 2 yr olds. He was losing weight; but had a voracious appetite. He would tear open treat bags, pull things out of the garbage, etc. After diagnostics revealed that he was otherwise healthy, I began to take his diet into consideration.

He was getting a quality high protein, low carb grain-free dry and was getting canned food as well. After some probing, I realized that he had COMPLETELY stopped eating the dry. After some trial and error, I finally found another dry that he liked (it had a higher fat content too!) He put his weight back on quickly. I also increased the amount of wet he was getting.

Now, all my cats get 2 canned meals and a small measured amount of dry daily...Can't quite afford to feed an all wet diet.

raintyger · Oct 26, 2013

Well, if Sookie won't eat wet food, feed Tequila wet food and that will solve the stealing problem for now.

But seriously, you should make that a temporary solution. It does sound like Sookie needs more nutrients, and the best way to provide them is get her off dry food and onto a high quality wet food. You'll avoid lots of health issues later by switching to wet. Either of these two websites has a good rundown on cat nutrition:

http://www.catinfo.org

http://www.fnae.org

catsallaround · Oct 26, 2013

I would leave food out all day and see if that solves issue. If I feed my cats on schedule they will do this but if I top off the food as needed they only puke hairballs here and there.

If that does not work I would have blood drawn to check for diabetes and thyroid mainly among all the other things they test for with basic blood work.

Some cats do enjoy tearing bags even when fed enough. I have one who has destroyed many bags just cause she can(and same one who has opened a can of food...) She had medical issues few months after I got her with some infection we never were able to nail down but been healthy since(repeat bloodwork was pulled after she acted normal again)

chani · Oct 27, 2013

Well I tried some different types of wet food and she took to them now. She's still inhaling her food so quickly and still trying to steal the other cats food. I have all the dry food in a sealed plastic container and started to put my bread and other things that come in plastic bags into the cabinets. Sookie is so very cautious when she eats her food. She doesn't sit down all the way to eat, she kinda stands and seems like she's ready to bolt whenever someone makes a sound. I don't know what happened in the house that I picked her up from or anything. She's gotten a little better but is still so very (need to survive all the time) scared and jumpy. I'm not sure on if that will ever get better?

raintyger · Oct 27, 2013

Chani said:
Well I tried some different types of wet food and she took to them now. She's still inhaling her food so quickly and still trying to steal the other cats food. I have all the dry food in a sealed plastic container and started to put my bread and other things that come in plastic bags into the cabinets. Sookie is so very cautious when she eats her food. She doesn't sit down all the way to eat, she kinda stands and seems like she's ready to bolt whenever someone makes a sound. I don't know what happened in the house that I picked her up from or anything. She's gotten a little better but is still so very (need to survive all the time) scared and jumpy. I'm not sure on if that will ever get better?

It's great that you got Sookie on wet. What brand are you using? It needs to be high in protein to abate hunger.

My cat is like that. If she hears any noises that are unusual/louder than normal, she gets spooked and runs away from the dinner bowl momentarily. She's just high strung.

If Sookie is eating too fast, try putting something like a billiard ball in the dish to slow her down. (They have their own bowls, right?) If she's eating a lot but not gaining weight, she needs to go to the vet. I would probably take her even if she's not gaining weight, though, since the symptoms seemed to appears right after medical procedures. Or at least give the vet a call since it's related to the services they performed.

tammyp · Oct 27, 2013

That's fantastic Chani! I'm sure with being in a stable environment, Sookie will continue to do better and better regarding her nerves. I thought this article might help on that front: http://www.wayofcats.com/blog/building-a-cats-confidence/22017

HELP!!!!! My cat gorges her food down and tries to eat my other cats food as well!!!

chani

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jcat

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chani

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catpack

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